Monday, October 13, 2014

Iowa Renewables Update For October 2014

I’m still
working on a tax and regulatory post to explain why current state and federal
policy discourages farmer owned renewables (it also discourages business and
individual renewable systems). That will be posted sometime after harvest. Is there
a tax professional out there interested in co-authoring a piece? Here are some “around the interweb” items and thoughts about farmers and climate policy in the meantime.

Nathanael Johnson @grist.org called on farmers
to march at the recent climate rally , and spent some time discussing Iowa
farmers. Grist is a great source for energy and climate writing. However, this
post was particularly interesting to this farmer. Johnson correctly points out the
disconnect between Greens and Farmers. Asking farmers to attend a climate rally
scheduled in the middle of harvest is an excellent example of this (Sorry Nathanael,
just couldn’t resist). His closing statement also caught my eye - “In
the past greens have largely dismissed conventional farmers because we’ve
thought they were opposed to our goals. But if agriculture emerges as a true
political power against global warming, greens will be ready to listen when
farmers say, “Hey, you should be giving us some credit for our environmental
efforts.” I’ve found state and federal
level green groups have indeed been dismissive of farmer owned renewables in
the past as well (with at least 1 exception). I know
quite a few of them, and have found them mainly enamored with controlling emission
levels, energy efficiency, utility scale wind – transmission lines, and lately
solar leasing…but not focused on the barriers to farmer renewables. These
positions haven’t built
much public support in the voting booth for climate policy and renewables. Ag groups haven't had farmer renewables on their priorities list either, but that might finally be changing now that some farmers are starting to push them. , So, maybe Greens and Agriculture might have an issue they
could agree on.I’m guessing German
Farmers did march in this rally
calling for moving Germany to 100% renewables. After all, farmers are major players in renewables there. In the Midwest, not so much.

Who knows,
if Greens and Ag could actually agree on this issue , maybe these groups could start to find consensus
on the tougher climate policy goals we need. A lot of farmers are ready to do their part, Sadly, public policy isn't ready for them.

The Iowa
Utilities Board is currently conducting a review
of state Distributed Generation policy, and it appears they will do little to
help farmer owned renewables in this docket. Feed in Tariffs, and statewide net
metering will be not be taken up, and there’s no guarantee they will standardize
interconnection procedures either. In the past, the board has suggested the
legislature take up some of these issues. Look for a full post on this.

There seems
to be a lot of misinformation circulating in U.S. media on the German renewable revolution. This blog by Craig
Morris is a good place to get the facts.